Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Intro Social Interaction
Intro Social Interaction
Question
• “Who are we
without society?”
Answer
• NOT MUCH>>>>>WITHOUT
SOCIETY, WE ARE
SUBHUMAN
• See Victor of Aveyron
Nurture over nature
• FOR EXAMPLE: George Herbert
Mead’s work on the “Looking Glass
Self,” talks about how we
become who we believe others
think we are.
To Mead, the Symbolic
Interactionist…
• We define and build
ourselves through our
perceptions of others’
assessments of us, he says.
1799
• Victor of Aveyron (also The Wild Boy
of Aveyron) was a feral child who
apparently lived his entire childhood
naked and alone in the woods.
Four Principles
Four Principles
1. Pleasure
2. Rationality
3. Reciprocity
4. Personality
Pleasure
• Pleasure vs Pain-we seek out those who
make us feel good.
Rationality
• People change their behaviour based upon
reward. Will they be better off or worse off
if I enter in interaction
• Cost/Benefits, needs for satisfication
Reciprocity
• Reciprocity-the most familiar principle of
interaction, if every time I pay the bill, and
you don’t, the behaviour will be stopped.
• We have the principle of fairness, rules
should apply equally.
• Ie. Laws of supply and demand??
Personality
• We value civility, fairness
• Fairness-understanding…
Four principles of interaction
• Four principles of interaction are
balanced
• They balance behaviour over time
• They are The Human Condition
• Collectively the four principles of
interaction, shape group structure.
Interaction as Symbolic
• Symbolic interactionists regard people as
active, creative, and self-reflective
-
Gender happens/Age Happens
• Gender happens with no mention of gender
-Implicit in the contours of friendship
-Full of Processes Including:
a. planning of activities
b. invitations
c. seeking access
d. saving of places
e. denials of entry
Gender Segregation
• When gender is explicitly provoked by
teachers and by students it is usually for the
purpose of separation..
The Symbolic Interactionist’s
View of Gender
•
• Throughout elementary school-separated
by sex..(girls line, boys line)
• Same sex clusters-sit together, eat together
• Playground-gendered turf..
• Two worlds-two identities
•
Gender was a physical marker
in the adult organized school day
Such as:
•
a. addressing clusters of children-girls don’t
do that
b. sorting and organizing activities
c. marking off territories-girls close to the
school, boys further away
•
Mid 20 th Century-
• Women used as tools for industrial
economy. Women’s work is invisible
labour: in peace-time they are “slaves of
the household”, during War-time they
are “productive, wage earning patriots”.
Ie. Rosie the Riveter
Return to cult of domesticity